U.S. patent number 5,652,956 [Application Number 08/524,514] was granted by the patent office on 1997-08-05 for adjustable shin pad.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Canstar Sports Group, Inc.. Invention is credited to Rene Bourque, Daniel Chartrand, T. Blaine Hoshizaki, Rodrigue McDuff.
United States Patent |
5,652,956 |
Hoshizaki , et al. |
August 5, 1997 |
Adjustable shin pad
Abstract
A shin pad is described in which the shin shield is in two
pieces, namely an upper piece which is secured to the lining of the
knee cap, or to the knee cap itself, and a lower piece which is
slidable up and down relative to the upper piece, and to which a
lower liner is secured, the lower liner being independent of the
knee liner. Preferably, the lower piece is slidable with respect to
the upper piece by virtue of one or more slotted holes in either or
both of the upper piece and/or lower piece, with bolts and T-nuts
being used in the slots to secure the pieces together in the
desired position. Preferably, there are three such slotted holes,
namely a front central one and two side ones, namely one towards
either side of the pad. Preferably, there is sufficient sloppiness
in the slots to provide a varus/valgus adjustment, i.e. an
adjustment of the angle of the shin shield, in the vertical
fore-and-aft plane, relative to the orientation of the knee cap, by
permitting the lower piece to be secured with one side higher than
the other relative to the upper piece.
Inventors: |
Hoshizaki; T. Blaine (Montreal
West, CA), Bourque; Rene (Laval, CA),
McDuff; Rodrigue (Laval, CA), Chartrand; Daniel
(Deux-Montagnes, CA) |
Assignee: |
Canstar Sports Group, Inc.
(CA)
|
Family
ID: |
4150782 |
Appl.
No.: |
08/524,514 |
Filed: |
September 7, 1995 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
|
|
159322 |
Nov 30, 1993 |
|
|
|
|
Foreign Application Priority Data
Current U.S.
Class: |
2/22 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63B
71/1225 (20130101); A41D 13/0153 (20130101); A63B
2071/125 (20130101); A63B 2071/1258 (20130101); A63B
2208/12 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A63B
71/12 (20060101); A63B 71/08 (20060101); A41D
013/06 () |
Field of
Search: |
;2/22,23,24,16,62
;602/16,20,23,26 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Lewis; Paul C.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow,
Garrett & Dunner, L.L.P.
Parent Case Text
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No.
08/159,322, filed Nov. 30, 1993, now abandoned.
Claims
What is claimed as the invention is:
1. A shin and knee pad assembly for sports, comprising:
a shin pad portion, comprising shin padding material positionable
along and partially around a person's shin, and a rigid plastic
shield extending along a substantial portion of a front surface of
the shin padding material; and
a separate knee pad portion, comprising knee padding material
positionable over a person's knee, and a rigid plastic shield
across a substantial portion of a front surface of said knee
padding material, said shin pad portion having separate upper and
lower pieces, the upper piece being secured to said knee pad
portion, the lower piece having means for slidably fastening the
lower piece to the upper piece, for sliding movement up and down
relative to the upper piece, whereby the overall length of said
shin pad portion may be varied.
2. A shin and knee pad assembly as recited in claim 1, wherein said
means for slidably fastening the lower piece to the upper piece
comprises one or more vertically-oriented slotted holes in at least
one of the lower and upper pieces, and the fastening means passes
through the slotted holes.
3. A shin and knee pad assembly as recited in claim 2, wherein the
vertically-oriented slotted holes are positioned in at least two
laterally spaced-apart locations.
4. A shin and knee pad assembly as recited in claim 3, having three
vertically-oriented slotted hole locations including a first hole
location being generally centrally located, the remaining hole
locations being laterally spaced apart therefrom, and one of each
of the remaining hole locations being located on either side of
said shin pad portion.
5. A shin and knee pad assembly as recited in claim 2 or 3, wherein
said slotted holes provide means for securing the lower piece to
the upper piece at a plurality of different angles relative to a
vertical fore-and-aft plane of the upper piece.
6. A shin and knee pad assembly as recited in claim 4, wherein the
lower piece is secured to the upper piece at a plurality of
different angles relative to a vertical fore-and-aft plane of the
upper piece.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to shin pads for use as protective gear in
contact sports, especially ice hockey.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In ice hockey, shins protectors (more commonly referred to as "shin
guards" or "shin pads") conventionally have a flexible elongated
padded portion which may be arranged to wrap partially around the
front of a player's lower leg, from the ankle to just above the
knee. (The common term "shin pad" is therefore slightly misleading,
since protection for the knee is also provided.) Rigid or
semi-rigid plastic shield members are secured to the pad, namely a
shin shield running from the ankle to just below the knee, and a
knee shield covering the knee. Separate shield members are used, to
allow the pad to flex to accommodate bending of the knee.
The shield members are conventionally sewn or riveted to the pad.
For example, it is common to sew the knee shield to the pad, and to
rivet the shin shield to the pad with large rivets in several
spaced-apart locations. The knee shield moves with the knee when
the player flexes his leg, simply by the flexibility of the
pad.
The length of the pad is fixed, so that as a young player grows,
the pad cannot continue to be used for possibly an additional
season or two, unless optimum protection is sacrificed. Similarly,
the pad cannot be shared by two players, such as where a family has
several hockey-playing children who may wish to share
equipment.
Furthermore, the length of the pad cannot be optimized to suit the
individual ideally.
It would therefore be desirable to have a shin pad which allowed
for at least some adjustment in length. At the same time, it would
be desirable to have a shin pad which would have a varus/valgus
adjustment for further optimization to fit the player ideally.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a shin pad
where the length of the shin shield portion is adjustable, and
where preferably there is also a varus/valgus adjustment.
Therefore, in the invention, the shin shield is in two pieces,
namely an upper piece which is secured to the lining of the knee
cap, or to the knee cap itself, and a lower piece which is slidable
up and down relative to the upper piece, and to which a lower liner
is secured, the lower liner being independent of the knee
liner.
Preferably, the lower piece is slidable with respect to the upper
piece by virtue of one or more slotted holes in either or both of
the upper piece and/or lower piece, with bolts and T-nuts being
used in the slots to secure the pieces together in the desired
position.
Preferably, there is a certain degree of deliberate "sloppiness" in
the slots, so as to provide a varus/valgus adjustment, i.e. an
adjustment of the angle of the shin shield relative to the vertical
fore-and-aft plane and thus relative to the orientation of the knee
cap.
With the length adjustment and varus/valgus adjustment, it is
possible to optimize the pad configuration for a particular player
in a manner which has only been possible in the past through custom
non-adjustable pads.
It will be appreciated that although the invention is especially
designed for use in the sport of ice hockey, the same general
construction could be readily adapted for use in shin pads in other
sports where similar protection is required. The invention as
defined in the appended claims is therefore not limited to ice
hockey equipment.
Further features of the invention will be described or will become
apparent in the course of the following detailed description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In order that the invention may be more clearly understood, the
preferred embodiment thereof will now be described in detail by way
of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in
which:
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the preferred
embodiment;
FIG. 2 is a front elevation view of the preferred embodiment, at
maximum length;
FIG. 3 is a side elevation view of the preferred embodiment, at
maximum length;
FIG. 4 is a front elevation view of the preferred embodiment, at
minimum length;
FIG. 5 is a side elevation view of the preferred embodiment, at
minimum length;
FIG. 6 is a side cross-sectional elevation view;
FIGS. 7 and 8 are front elevation views, showing the varus/valgus
adjustability of the pad.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring to the drawings, the shin pad includes a two-piece shin
shield, comprising an upper piece 2 and a lower piece 4. The upper
piece in the preferred embodiment is pivotally fastened to the knee
cap 6, which is sewn or otherwise secured to the knee liner 8, but
the upper piece could be secured to the knee liner instead. The
lower piece 4 is slidable up and down relative to the upper piece.
A lower liner 10 is secured to the lower piece via clips 12, and is
independent of the knee liner. A foam insert 14 may also be
provided for additional cushioning.
The lower piece is slidable with respect to the upper piece by
virtue of one or more slotted holes in either or both of the upper
piece and/or lower piece. In the preferred embodiment, the upper
piece has three slotted holes 16, namely two towards either side of
the upper piece and one in the front. Bolts 18 and T-nuts 20 are
used in the slots to secure the pieces together in the desired
position.
In the preferred embodiment as illustrated, the knee cap 6 is
pivotally mounted on the upper piece 2 by virtue of bolts 22 and
nuts 24 at pivot points 26 on the lateral and medial sides of the
knee.
The length of the slots is approximately as illustrated in the
drawings, thereby allowing a corresponding variation in length of
the shin pad. Obviously, the length of the slots could be varied,
although there is no intention to produce a shin pad which will
cover a large range of lengths; that is not possible, since the
other components must change size proportionately.
Preferably, there is a certain degree of "sloppiness" in the slots,
which is inevitably somewhat inherent, but which is adjusted so as
to provide a varus/valgus adjustment, i.e. an adjustment of the
angle of the shin shield relative to the vertical fore-and-aft
plane and thus relative to the orientation of the knee cap. This
adjustment is provided, as illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8, by
fastening one side or the other of the shin shield 4 higher than
the other side, i.e. farther up in the slot 16.
It will be appreciated that the above description relates to the
preferred embodiment by way of example only. Many variations on the
invention will be obvious to those knowledgeable in the field, and
such obvious variations are within the scope of the invention as
described and claimed, whether or not expressly described.
* * * * *